I must see Lord Ostermore!" had been Mr. Caryll's wild cry, as he strode to the door.
>From the other side of it there came a sound of steps and voices. Some one was turning the handle.
Hortensia caught Mr. Caryll by the sleeve. "But the letters!"she cried frantically, and pointed to the incriminating papers which he had left, forgotten, upon the desk.
He stared at her a moment, and memory swept upon him in a flood. He mastered the wild agitation that had been swaying him, thrust the paper that he was carrying into his pocket, and turned to go back for the treasonable letters.
"The taper!" he exclaimed, and pointed to the extinguished candle on the floor. "What can we do?"A sharp blow fell upon the lock of the door. He stood still, looking over his shoulder.
"Quick! Make haste!" Hortensia admonished him in her excitement. "Get them! Conceal them, at least! Do the best you can since we have not the means to burn them."A second blow was struck, succeeded instantly by a third, and something was heard to snap. The door swung open, and Green and Rotherby sprang into the room, a brace of footmen at their heels. They were followed more leisurely by the countess;whilst a little flock of servants brought up the rear, but checked upon the threshold, and hung there to witness events that held out such promise of being unusual.
Mr. Caryll swore through set teeth, and made a dash for the desk. But he was too late to accomplish his object. His hand had scarcely closed upon the letters, when he was, himself, seized. Rotherby and Green, on either side of him, held him in their grasp, each with one hand upon his shoulder and the other at his wrist. Thus stood he, powerless between them, and, after the first shock of it, cool and making no effort to disengage himself. His right hand was tightly clenched upon the letters.
Rotherby called a servant forward. "Take those papers from the thief's hand," he commanded.
"Stop!" cried Mr. Caryll. "Lord Rotherby, may I speak with you alone before you go further in a matter you will bitterly regret ?""Take those papers from him," Rotherby repeated, swearing; and the servant bent to the task. But Mr. Caryll suddenly wrenched the hand away from the fellow and the wrist out of Lord Rotherby's grip.
"A moment, my lord, as you value your honor and your possessions!" he insisted. "Let me speak with Lord Ostermore first. Take me before him.""You are before him now," said Rotherby. "Say on!""I demand to see Lord Ostermore."
"I am Lord Ostermore," said Rotherby.
"You? Since when?" said Mr. Caryll, not even beginning to understand.
"Since ten minutes ago," was the callous answer that first gave that household the news of my lord's passing.
There was a movement, a muttering among the servants. Old Humphries broke through the group by the door, his heavy chops white and trembling, and in that moment Hortensia turned, awe-stricken, to ask her ladyship was this true. Her ladyship nodded in silence. Hortensia cried out, and sank to a chair as if beaten down by the news, whilst the old servant, answered, too, withdrew, wringing his hands and making foolish laments; and the tears of those were the only tears that watered the grave of John Caryll, fifth Earl of Ostermore.
As for Mr. Caryll, the shock of that announcement seemed to cast a spell upon him. He stood still, limp and almost numbed. Oh, the never-ceasing irony of things! That his father should have died at such a moment.
"Dead?" quoth he. "Dead? Is my lord dead? They told me he was recovering.""They told you false," answered Rotherby. "So now - those papers!"Mr. Caryll relinquished them. "Take them," he said. "Since that is so - take them."Rotherby received them himself. "Remove his sword," he bade a footman.
Mr. Caryll looked sharply round at him. "My sword?" quoth he.
"What do you mean by that? What right "
"We mean to keep you by us, sir," said Mr. Green on his other side, "until you have explained what you were doing with those papers - what is your interest in them."Meanwhile a servant had done his lordship's bidding, and Mr. Caryll stood weaponless amid his enemies. He mastered himself at once. Here it was plain that he must walk with caution, for the ground, he perceived, was of a sudden grown most insecure and treacherous. Rotherby and Green in league! It gave him matter for much thought.
"There's not the need to hold me," said he quietly. "I am not likely to tire myself by violence. There's scarcely necessity for so much."Rotherby looked up sharply. The cool, self-possessed tone had an intimidating note. But Mr. Green laughed maliciously, as he continued to mop his still watering eyes. He was acquainted with Mr. Caryll's methods, and knew that, probably, the more at ease he seemed, the less at ease he was.
Rotherby spread the letters on the desk, and scanned them with a glowing eye, Mr. Green at his elbow reading with him. The countess swept forward that she, too, might inspect this find.
"They'll serve their turn," said her son, and added to Caryll:
"And they'll help to hang you."
"No doubt you find me mentioned in them," said Mr. Caryll.
"Ay, sir," snapped Green, "if not by name, at least as the messenger who is to explain that which the writers - the royal writer and the other - have out of prudence seen fit to exclude."Hortensia looked up and across the room at that, a wild fear clutching at her heart. But Mr. Caryll laughed pleasantly, eyebrows raised as if in mild surprise. "The most excellent relations appear to prevail between you," said he, looking from Rotherby to Green. "Are you, too, my lord, in the secretary's pay."His lordship flushed darkly. "You'll clown it to the end," he sneered.
"And that's none so far off," snarled Mr. Green, who since the peppering of his eyes, had flung aside his usual cherubic air.
